They are Back...

Phew...!!!!!!!! Finally, yesterday I could talk to my papa and today I could talk to my ma after almost 12 days. No, no family quarrel, just that they were on their foreign holiday (I and bhabhi have started calling "foreign" as "phoren", and now ma-papa are officially "Phoren returned") and their happiness can be felt in their voices. They are refreshed. Had been to Malaysia, Singapore and Bangkok.

So much they want to tell and express, and so much we want to know. But these distances... Mobile phones have cut down the distances but still, there are situations when you want to sit and talk face-to-face.

The funniest incident I have come to know about their trip: Bhabhi had messaged them the names of the choclates that we wanted. But the shopkeeper was not able to understand them at all. English VS Chinese kinda situation. Finally ma suggested papa to handover the phone itself to the shopkeeper. Let him read the message and get the Choclates... Finally, our choclates are waiting for their proud owners, at Jaipur.

And these SMSes will never be delivered when you desperately want them to be delivered. Bhabhi suggested that I should tell them to get an IPOD for me from Bangkok. I messaged them, with the complete name, model and the approximate price. BUT, the SMS did not deliver. Before I could realize this and re-send the message, they were already on their way back to India... SAD...

But no issues. Atleast they have enjoyed and had a completely different experience of their life and an unforgettable vacation. Now they are back. And I am happiest because now I can resume my long phone calls with ma-papa :)

10th Year of the "Blogger"

Hello Bloggers,

Found this news item in the ToI, Jaipur Edition today (24th August, 2009), so thought of sharing...

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The 10th year of the ‘blogger’
A little-noticed anniversary of blogs finds India a force to reckon with in cyberspace
Saira Kurup TNN

A personal diary or a daily pulpit; a collaborative space or a universe of rumours — attempts to define the blog probably outnumbers its roll call on the web. And 10 years down the line, it’s growing and mutating into different avatars. Never mind the different definitions. The blogosphere is basically can be seen as a popular online venue for coffee house conversation in text. A decade ago, Peter Merholz jokingly split Jorn Barger’s nerdy term ‘weblog’ into ‘we blog’, which then simply became the ‘blog’ we know today. This happened with Evan Williams’ launch of ‘Blogger’, a web-publishing software exactly 10 years ago today. Later, Williams was to found Twitter. But the blog has changed much from the early days. “The first blogs were text-based; there were no videos or pictures,’’ explains Ashish Chopra, director of communication and PR of the Indian Blog and New Media Society. “As the net bandwidth increased over the years, the content also became rich.” Simple text has given way to photoblogs, vblogs (videos), moblogs (posts from mobiles), audio bogs, podcasts, microblogs and more. Blogs have gone from being personal diaries or opinions to first-hand accounts of breaking news stories and other matters. “The earliest bloggers wrote on technical stuff. Now the content is diverse — films, celebrity diaries, fashion, religion, cooking, marketing and politics,” adds Chopra. India’s earliest blogs were probably posted in 2001, he says. The Indian capital’s first blogger group, Delhibloggersbloc.com, was founded by Priyanka Sachar who goes by the name of Twilight Fairy. She recalls, “When I started my blog in 2003, I did not tell colleagues, just close friends. Few knew the term ‘blog’. We had to spell it out.” It was a small community and everyone knew each other. “Now, blogging is the ‘in’ thing,” she says. Many of the original bloggers have stopped — it was a hobby and they simple gave it up. “Now, it’s different; people are making a livelihood from blogging,” says Sachar. The profile of the blogger has changed as well. From 20-somethings with loads of free time on their hands, to senior citizens, housewives and even young children. The Indian blogger is on a par with the global trend, says Chopra and many feature among the world’s leading blogs now. Renie Ravin, founder of the 10,000-member Chennai-based blogger network Indiblogger.in, says the Indian blogger appears more mature now. Blogging has also diversified into various Indian languages. This was borne out by a 2009 report on the state of the blogosphere by Ravin and Gaurav Mishra of 20:20 Web Tech. Based on a survey of 7,895 blogs, it showed that 92% of Indian bloggers use English; Hindi is the most popular Indian language (52%), followed by Tamil (19%), Marathi (9%), Telugu (7%) and Malayalam (5%). But in the final analysis, the fate of a blog depends on the content. “If you don’t have good content, people will not come back to your blog,” says Chopra. “Have a blog with a specific focus,” advises Ravin. Sachar says it helps if there is audience interaction. With improving bandwidth and widening net access, Indian blogs are sure to multiply. But will they improve in quality? “We will see more convergence of services. Friendfeed is already doing that by aggregating content and updates from blogs, social networking sites, etc,” says Chopra. The newest trend is micro-blogging, but the downside, says Sachar, is that the “frequency of blogging has come down because we say everything in short messages.” But those who keep a sharp eye on the blogpulse will continue to twitter and chatter because, as Sachar says, “it’s like a cellphone. Soon, it will be strange not to have one.”

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Mind Flu...

Few weeks ago, we Indians got another phenomenon to talk about. Swine Flu. Now I don’t remember where did it all started from (may be America), but this is something all of us are talking about at-least five times a day. And thus has started new chains of forwarded mails, jokes, cartoons, new and fancy kind of masks, debates etc etc.
In our offices, if someone just says that he/she is not feeling well or is down with fever or sneezes by chance, God save that soul. The entire office would start cracking jokes about that fellow having swine flu. The other day, my friends at office were planning to cough and sneeze exactly on faces of their bosses, so that they may grant few leaves.
Mails regarding how swine flu started (showing it started from America and their love for Pigs- few photographs of Americans playing with pigs), what swine flu is all about, how to take precautions, what are the symptoms, kind of masks to be used etc have become common these days.
The effect of which is that anyone with fever for more than 3 days or with the problem of cough, is running to the hospitals for the free medical check-up. Irritated with this and not being able to handle such huge turn out of patients, the Karnatka state government published three levels of symptoms and mentioned it clearly that anyone showing third level symptoms only to take up the test, others will not be entertained. But in the same state, if we see the pattern of deaths due to swine flu, patients did not bother in the first two stages and by the time they found out the third level, it became too late and they succumbed to the flu. Now anyone anywhere dies of fever is reported “suspected swine flu” patient, creating a panic situation in that city. The government itself is creating panic and at the same time advising the citizens not to panic. In short, everyone is confused.
Doctors are telling which type of masks to use, but you can find road side vendors’ also selling “some” masks on the traffic signals and people are indeed buying them. I doubt if these masks may actually help anyone and whether or not they are new/ sterilized. Swine flu may affect someone’s body but with all those rumors, panic situations, unavailability of drugs, proper masks and information, this swine flu has become a Mind Flu. Wish that we come out of this as soon as possible...

Observation 3

This is an observation that these days I not only make when I am travelling in my cab but every where. KIDS.

I don't know if the kids these days are actually so cute or we have started observing now only.

I don't know if it is the natural charm of the kids or the dresses and various accessories these days that make them look so cute.

I know they are more mischievous than us, but they "look" so dumb, stupid and yet cute in whatever they do.

Last month when my mother was here, I noticed a Toy Mall. A big showroom exclusively for kids. I decided that we would go in there (although we have no one as of now in our family for whom we can buy any of these things). And the moment we entered in the showroom, I was awestruck by the range of toys and accessories for kids. My God. There were these miniature battery operated bikes, TV (an actual TV) in various colorful shapes, thousands of toys, soft toys, gadgets.. And the best of all, which I had seen for the first time. A washing machine for kids. Another elderly lady asked me if this machine actually washes clothes. I curiously enquired about it with one of the sales girl and she confirmed that it actually is a working washing machine for kids with a capacity of 2.5 KG. That was awesome.

There we saw the typical of kids. One such boy got hold of a car and was running it on the floor in a corner, making sounds of the car with his mouth. The moment sales girl asked him to hand it back to her, he just took the car and refused to give it back to her and started running here and there away from the sales girl...

We decided to sit on a bench kept just outside the showroom. We would see that the parents were taking their children to this showroom to buy something and the children were so excited that they were hopping up and down, wearing the best of their clothes. Some of them were coming out happily for they were given what they wanted but few were coming out crying because they were not given what they wanted.

Anywhere I go these days, I can see such bubbly kids with chubby cheeks that I often wonder why we were so skinny in our times. I still remember that the younger kids of the family would mostly wear clothes of their elder siblings. But now all of them have separate wardrobes with all sorts of colorful clothes and accessories.

I am not saying that I had a bad time as a kid and that it was unfair to me that I didn't had such cool clothes, miniature TV, washing machine, beds, etc. But now when I see all these things, I wish to go back to the time when I was an infant and want to grow up again!!!

Strange...

Well well well.. I am back to blog after so many days, rather weeks. Lot many things happened. I shifted from the PG to a flat with my colleague-cum-friend. We spent almost 2 weeks to make the place comfortable for us. Bought TV with cable, got the net connection, gas connection, mattresses, utensils, and many other things... What was the hurry to do so? My mother was coming to stay with me for a week.
Here is what was strange about her visit. I was so very happy that she is coming to stay with me, but was worried about it as well, because I was not sure if I have made the place comfortable enough for her. She was travelling alone by plane for the very first time. But the moment she came out of the airport with the trolley and spotted me, there was this kid-dish smile on her face, an indication that she had no problem during the flight. When she came, the first thing that she noticed was that my flat didn’t have any balcony. That meant that she would have to be confined in the two rooms throughout the day when I would be in my office. That made me sad because I know that she cannot sit at one place for long. Then, being bachelors, mattress on the floor is the best and the most luxurious bed. But she was having difficulty in sitting down and getting up every time. I left my mobile with her so that she could at-least talk to her usual gang. She can now watch her serials without any disturbance. With a bachelor’s point of view, I had tried to make the place as comfortable as I can, but my mind would always keep wandering back to what she might be doing at home, when I am at office. I would call her after every 1 or 2 hours just to know that she is ok. Although she would always sound as if she is having a good time here, but I would want her to go back as soon as possible since I knew that she is not at all comfortable here. That is how parents are.
Then we went for some window shopping one Saturday. That was the best day. With no intentions to buy anything, we entered in a shop, Soch. Within 40 odd minutes, we ended up buying 7 sarees!!! Then wandered here and there, did some heavy bargaining with road side vendor for wooden carvings. Finally was the time to go to Hyderabad to visit my brother for Rakhi. There she got ample space to stretch herself and rest, which relieved me as well. Had fun on Rakhi. Very excitedly booked the tickets for Love Aaj Kal. Went to watch it but all of us came out with the same expression – “the movie was such a crap, over-rated and over-hyped”... Just the songs were good. Then we did some shopping for papa. Finally was the time to part again. Mom had to go back to Jaipur and I had to come back to this boring place. Once back to our destinations, everyone started feeling bored. First day after I came back, I was missing her so badly because in the previous week I would literally run up the stairs to find her standing on the door waiting for me. Now there was no one.
But my parents had no time to get bore, because they had to prepare for their first foreign holiday. I just wish that they have a great vacation and I am already eagerly waiting for their photographs!!!